In rapid succession, one after another, came the delivery of two gifts into the Mets’ universe.

A terrible rookie decision right in front of them.

A bullpen implosion 1,300 miles away.

So not only did the Mets end a four-game losing streak and finish the night back at .500, 58-58 courtesy of their 3-2, 11-inning victory over the Padres at Citi Field, but thanks to the White Sox’s eighth-inning rally in Miami and the resulting 8-7 victory over the Marlins (60-56), Terry Collins’ group gained ground in the race for the second National League wild-card slot, with the victorious Cardinals (61-56) leading the pack and the Mets 2 ½ games behind.

Will it matter? Or is this Mets club too broken down and worn out to attend the parity party?

“Hopefully, it’ll be a bit of a catapult for us,” said Neil Walker, whose 11th-inning hustle led to him scoring the winning run.

One-hundred sixteen games into this slog of a Mets season, however, you would have to be quite the optimist to envision this night leading to bigger and better things for the defending NL champions. There have been too many false starts, too many casualties, too much incompetence. Shoot, even this victory carried degrees of pain, given that Jeurys Familia stood one out from wrapping things up in regulation — off yet another masterful start by Jacob deGrom — before Wil Myers crushed a game-tying homer to left-center.

What if that had led to a loss? For one thing, there would be even more speculation about Collins’ future. Instead, Familia’s successors silenced the Padres’ offense, and Walker continued his recent excellence by leading off the 11th with a single to right field. One out later, with the visitors shifting James Loney, Walker hustled to third when Loney dumped a base hit into short left-center.

With the infield in, Wilmer Flores stroked a grounder to Ryan Schimpf, the Padres’ 28-year-old rookie second baseman.

“I thought it was going to be a double play, to be honest,” Collins said.
“Definitely, I thought they were going to turn two,” Flores said.

Instead, Schimpf tried to get Walker at home and threw wildly to the left of San Diego catcher Christian Bethancourt, allowing Walker to score and the Mets to celebrate.

“Looking back on it now, I should’ve turned two,” an accountable Schimpf said. “But in that situation, once I heard the broken bat, I just decided to make a decision and come in and make the play at home. I kind of put myself in a bad position to make a throw.”

Speaking of bad position, the Mets lifted their record to 1-4 on this homestand that featured two series against very beatable clubs, first the Diamondbacks and now the Padres. Jose Reyes returned from the disabled list and ran the bases well in the first inning to manufacture the Mets’ first run. Collins said he hopes to get Yoenis Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera active again by next weekend in San Francisco.

We have seen too much go wrong with this Mets team, though. Only seeing a run of good ball will make believers out of anyone.

On this rare New York baseball weekend with both teams home, the Yankees stole the show with Alex Rodriguez’s dramatic departure, a 1996 championship reunion and a remarkable double debut by Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge, going deep back-to-back Saturday. In the season when the Mets absolutely were going to own this town, with the Yankees seemingly pulling the plug by executing a series of trade-deadline moves, Collins’ team has become the boring team again.

The Mets can win the season back. They had better get moving, though. They’re beyond one big night fueled by good fortune. They need a big month fueled by good baseball.